IBM And FUJIFILM Create 35TB Magnetic Tape Storage Device

In today's computing world, there are just a few things that come to
mind when you mention "storage." Flash drives, hard drives, solid state
drives and maybe even cloud storage. But that's about the extent of it.
Hardly anyone thinks about or recognizes magnetic tape storage any
more, but it's obviously still around and kicking thanks to innovations
by IBM and FUJIFILM.

Both of those companies have come together to produce one of the
largest tape drives to date, which is designed to archive important
information in scenarios where only massive, massive drives would work.
In fact, the new development has set a world record in areal data
density on linear magnetic tap. Magnetic tape isn't widely used in the
consumer arena, but it remains a resilient, reliable and affordable
data storage technology in the enterprise world. The new tape holds an
astounding 35TB (terabytes) of data, which is far, far greater than
even the largest hard drive. To put this in perspective, the biggest
HDD consumers can easily buy at Best Buy is 2TB. This is nearly 18x
bigger in terms of capacity!

The scientists at IBM Research - Zurich, in cooperation with the
FUJIFILM Corporation of Japan, recorded data onto an advanced prototype
tape, at a density of 29.5 billion bits per square inch - about 39
times the areal data density of today's most popular industry-standard
magnetic tape product*. To achieve this feat, IBM Research has
developed several new critical technologies, and for the past three
years worked closely with FUJIFILM to optimize its next-generation
dual-coat magnetic tape based on barium ferrite (BaFe) particles.

"This exciting achievement shows that tape storage is alive and
strong and will continue to provide users reliable data protection,
while maintaining a cost advantage over other storage technologies,
including hard disk drives and flash," said Cindy Grossman, vice
president, IBM Tape and Archive Storage Systems.

These new technologies are estimated to enable cartridge capacities
that could hold up to 35 trillion bytes (terabytes) of uncompressed
data. This is about 44 times the capacity of today's IBM LTO
Generation 4 cartridge. A capacity of 35 terabytes of data is
sufficient to store the text of 35 million books, which would require
248 miles (399 km) of bookshelves.

No pricing information is disclosed to the public, but it's not like
you really need to know. Check out the video below for a more in-depth
look at a storage technology that has been around forever yet is still
breaking records.